Too much poop can be hazardous to your health

Should large quantities of manure from giant commercial
farms be considered hazardous waste? They're not right now, and at least 14 members of Congress
want to keep it that way. The group, which includes Idaho Representative Mike
Simpson (R), recently signed on to the Superfund
Common Sense Act, a bill that would prevent the Environmental Protection
Agency from ever classifying manure mountains as a hazardous.

Okay, so maybe you're thinking -- but manure isn't hazardous! I just got a truckload of horse manure or chicken
litter from my neighbor. And I'm going to till it into my garden and boy are my
cucumbers going to take off nextyear!

In this case, it's all about quantity -- multiple studies
have demonstrated that when farms collect tons of untreated manure in one place
it releases pollutants into air (PDF) and water (sub req'd) that
are deleterious to human health. And contrary to what factory farm advocates
tell you, the EPA, if it ever did decide to consider manure hazardous, would
not be giving Superfund status to a 60-cow dairy in Wisconsin or California
organic farmer applying manure as grapevine fertilizer.

Rather, it might choose to classify as toxic giant spill areas, like the New
River in North Carolina, which, way back in 1995, was subject to a 25.8 million
gallon manure flood, as Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Tietz reported in a 2008
story for the magazine:

The biggest spill in the history of
corporate hog farming happened in 1995. The dike of a 120,000-square-foot
lagoon owned by a Smithfield competitor ruptured, releasing 25.8 million
gallons of effluvium into the headwaters of the New River in North Carolina. It
was the biggest environmental spill in United States history, more than twice
as big as the Exxon Valdez oil spill six years earlier. The sludge was so toxic
it burned your skin if you touched it, and so dense it took almost two months
to make its way sixteen miles downstream to the ocean. From the headwaters to
the sea, every creature living in the river was killed. Fish died by the
millions.

Regulating manure as a hazardous substance would also make
it so giant animal facilities (we probably shouldn't even call them farms) are
required to report their air
emissions. And while the
health implications of emissions from large Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operations, or CAFOs is still an emerging field of study, researchers have
documented illness and even death stemming from exposures to large quantities
of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide from factory farms, and over 300 different
kinds of volatile organic compounds have been identified coming off of swine
facilities.

The emergence of the Simpson-sponsored "shit ain't
toxic" bill at this time points to fears that the Obama EPA might actually
fulfill one of the candidate's campaign promises and crack down on pollution
from large animal operations -- a promise that some say helped him win in the
Iowa primaries. (Iowa ranks first in the country in its number of hog CAFOs)

It isn't the first time politicians have rushed to the aid
of the "family farms" they say will be hurt by supposed regulatory
overreach. Similar bills attempting to legally establish manure's benign nature
popped up in 2005 and
2006. Although they didn't go anywhere, the Bush-era EPA stepped up and
said they wouldn't
apply Superfund to CAFOs.

Obama's EPA may step up to the regulatory plate. But if they
do, be prepared to watch the manure fly.

More from Climate Change

I am wondering what the differences between CAFO and what is called in this state (Virginia)'biosolids'; other than the fact that biosolids are mandated and are human waste sludge. The Supreme Court of VA ruled 9 years ago that a county could NOT opt out of the spreading of this on farm fields.

According to what I have been able to find out, the ending of this practice has been either not asking the EPA, or that EPA has not finished studying the subject yet.

I think it is disgusting, especially since food is being grown in these fields for human consumption (both vegetables and animals).

Thank you.

John W Stephens

Oct 10, 2011 05:20 PM

Since the rank of Iowa in the number of CAFOs in the US has been added, you should probably subtract the "TK" comment from that 'graf.

rakashawn

Oct 12, 2011 03:23 PM

Thanks Stephanie for the great blog. I believe that biosolids and manures can be handled and utilized responsibly. Unfortunately, neither seems to be the case here. Our soils have metabolized excrement for eons, but never in such large concentrations applied to a small area.